Affiliate Window on Facebook

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What's all this about then? Facebook turns ugly - The INQUIRER

Is this the same Affiliate Window we know and love? Can't see anything on their website about it

[Paul Wright]

Ouch, obviously not a fan however I believe facebook are already addressing the issue of bloated homepages in order to tackle the sheer volume of apps now on the network.

[roshanb]

Just got a Merchant email from AW about the Facebook Wishlist. Don't think it's quite as bad as the spin that the Inquirer has put on it though atleast from a merchant perspective but would be good to hear what everyone else thinks.

You can read more about it here

Affiliate Window | Focus




Rosh

[Dr Foster]

Wishlist, a Facebook application to help our merchants engage in social network marketing, was officially launched today. My thanks go to Sylvie Barak at The Inquirer who clearly wishes she came up with the idea.

For more information click through to this Affiliate Window blog post or have a play with the application on Facebook and judge it for yourself.

If you are "gushing" with praise or criticisms, please post your thoughts up here and/or on our blog.

David

[Cheapdvds]

u may as well tell joe public they can all have their own cashback site as well

[philhancox]

This is just the same as being a cashback member/reward points site member/get a free nintendo wii member/amazon wishlist whatever so it seems a good idea....
The thing that interests me is, if the commission is equally split between two parties, then AW will only benefit from increased overrides, right? It is interesting that AWin, the network, have done this and not a clever affiliate with Facebook app skills. At first I was wondering if Affiliate Window were doing this as an affiliate, but they seem to be giving away all the commission. So will future network innovations be for affiliates, or for the public?

[Maxafi]

I have to say I'm not in favour of this either - I can see it only as another channel to lose sales through.

Cashback sites are bad enough (for everyone else in the industry), but when you start getting to a stage where joe public 'expects' a kickback somewhere, it's a downhill slope for the rest of us.

I'm all for innovation, but in my view this is an application that should have been done by an Affiliate, not a network.

[drivetowin]

I'm all for innovation, but in my view this is an application that should have been done by an Affiliate, not a network.

There are a couple of Affiliate cashback applications on Facebook already.

[loquax]

Not sure what I think - I fail to see how it's beneficial to affiliates - and it does concern me whether yourselves or other networks will now see "circumventing" affiliates as the way forward?

Are there are any benefits to affiliates? Do you think that it perhaps might cause some apathy - especially in the light of 100% cashback and other issues that are of concern to content sites?

As I understand - if an affiliate cookie is set, this won't be overwritten from the facebook app - will users be aware?

And this issue concerns me - do Awin have the resources to manage this - not in terms of technology, but dealing with the issues that arise due to commissions not being paid to wishlisters?

Joe Consumer isn't perhaps as forgiving as your quiet, polite and don't mind that tracking goes AWOL affiliates *cough*!

Of course it all depends on whether the whole thing becomes popular - (and if no affiliates join the application it won't be promoted by them to their friends) - so I guess we'll all have to just sit and see what happens.

I think what it does signify though is that AM is still evolving - is it for the best though?

Jason

[sgpratley]

u may as well tell joe public they can all have their own cashback site as well

Yes, I wasn't quite sure what the point of listing those sites on the side of the page was?

And this issue concerns me - do Awin have the resources to manage this - not in terms of technology, but dealing with the issues that arise due to commissions not being paid to wishlisters?

I guess this is AW's problem, but if it shows up any merchants habitually not tracking payments or reversing too many it might help all of us.

[ian-d]

I think the main problem from a purely selfish viewpoint is that its a application to say "hey everyone, make money, become an affiliate" which not only gives us more competition, but is just another cashback site, on a potentially grander scale.

But maybe i'm just saying that because I hate social networking sites!!!

[aotagain]

Its already difficult to know what's a real review or reccommendation and what isn't online.

Lets not deceive ourselves. This is not a valuable social networking contribution to anything. Its driven purely by profit motive, not altruism. Its not even a Blair "the British public have a right to more choice" type initiative.

Like pyramid selling, eventually every man and his dog will have an incentive to persuade their mates to buy something they'll get a kickback for and then reccommendations will be worth diddlysqat.

Is it yet another nail in the coffin for the idea of actually having a real community where you can trust your neighbour ?

If anyone ever joined a business 'social' organisation in the 80's, you'll no doubt remember the 'friendly' new members who after pretending to get to know you for a few weeks, started to peddle financial services - no doubt plenty involved in pensions and endowment mis-sellings for a nice commission.

Retailers already indirectly spam forums and social networks with 'planted' good customers, but risk being found out. A cynic would say that via Facebook they remain one step removed.

On the other hand, the whole thing seems at odds with any sort of consistent brand model for a merchant. What's the point of spending 10's of thousands on TV ads, only on the other hand to allow anyone that wants to, to earn money through selling your brand in whatever way they think fit.

Although on the other hand, that's being done to a large extent already by loads of affiliate sites pushing products for commission, WITHOUT MOST OF THE PUBLIC BEING AWARE THAT THE SITE HAS AN INCENTIVE TO PROMOTE WHATEVER IT IS.

imo this will dilute existing affiliate earnings if it gets going, but on the other hand if you've got a good content site, with loyal visitors who actually derive some value from it, then they'll probably still use your links, with a few escaping now and again.

Going into recession though it could well take off - all the retailers desperate for sales volume anywhere, anyhow, and loads of ebayers compensating for loss of sales by getting commission through Facebook for selling retailers products.

"Social network marketing" sounds very cosy, but it just reminds me how far away the 70's seem.

[loquax]

Interesting comment Aotagain!

One further question springs to mind... recently John Lewis pulled out of working with cashback affiliates, will their products be included in this product?

Jason

[D-Mac]

It's a clever idea that quite likely won't take off. Can't really grumble at AW, as their primary role is to help merchants sell stuff. It's more likely that an affiliate will do it better than AW (across all networks).

It leaves a bad taste in my mouth though. I think.

[sgpratley]

I just did a little blog post with my thoughts
The Online Marketing Blog » Blog Archive » Affiliate Window launches Facebook Wishlist to mixed reception.

but now I'm less intrigued by the technical aspects of the application than by how some people are using it....